International Journal of Educational Development最新文献

In this study, I evaluate adherence to Nigeria's Language of Instruction (LOI) policy, which mandates that primary school students be taught in indigenous language. Using multivariate regression analysis and data from round 6 of the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS6), I assessed disparities in adherence between school types (public and private schools) and location (urban/rural areas) and regions. The results reveal private schools exhibit lower implementation rates than public schools, while urban areas lag behind rural areas, and the southern region trails the north. This highlights the challenges of enforcing a uniform LOI policy in Nigeria's linguistically diverse setting. I also examine the relationship between LOI and literacy outcomes using regression and propensity score matching anaysis. Contrary to prevailing notion that teaching children in an indigenous language improves learning outcomes, my findings show that students taught in English outperformed their peers taught in indigenous languages. This departure from the norm underscores the need to reassess generalized conclusions derived from less lingustically diverse contexts, as they might not apply settings like Nigeria. It also calls for a nuanced understanding of how LOI influences learning outcomes in diverse contexts, emphasizing the importance of tailoring educational policies to local realities.

Environmental education provides people with the information they need to understand the causes and consequences of environmental issues, helping to promote positive attitudes toward nature. This paper uses a multivalued treatment effects model to evaluate the effects of a green school certification program on children’s pro-environmental behavior in Chile. Pro-environmental behavior is measured by knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to the consumption and disposal of plastics. Results evidence a positive effect of schools’ higher certification level on children’s plastic waste behavior. This effect seems stronger in practices where children have more decision-making power (e.g., packing a lunch box). The observed reverse effect when switching from basic to intermediate level of certification is in line with the potential non-linear effects of environmental education on pro-environmental behavior regarding the consumption and disposal of plastic. To improve the design of the program, it is important to redefine incentives in the certification system to differentiate better the benefits of reaching each level of environmental certification

This article considers the capital-related mechanisms behind parental activism against the Future School reform in South Korea, employing two theoretical frameworks: the parentocracy ideology and a Bourdieusian Analysis of Capital. The findings from discourse and social network (geolocational) analyses suggest that the activism is primarily driven by parents’ belief in meritocracy (testocracy), rooted in dominant educational norms. The efforts of parents to secure children's high exam scores indicate that parentocracy is a ‘continuum’ from meritocracy, rather than its next stage. The intersection of parental activism with capital and habitus highlights the complexities between parentocracy, meritocracy, and inequality, necessitating further analysis.

This personal narrative details the experiences of the founding director of the Institute of Education at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, reflecting on the development of educational precedents in post-Soviet Russia. The text outlines the establishment and rise of a few new innovative educational organizations, marking their impact through innovative practices rather than conventional policy reforms. The author argues that creating educational precedents—specific, practical examples of successful education strategies—is more resilient and effective than broad policy reforms or regulatory innovations. These precedents, once established, tend to endure through their intrinsic merits and practical success, despite shifting political landscapes and regulatory environments. The personal story underscores the complex interplay between educational innovation and political reaction in Russia.

We assessed the impact of compulsory kindergarten education on early teenage basic and functional literacy skills achievement using a large-scale natural experiment in the Philippines. In 2012, the Philippine government mandated compulsory kindergarten attendance for children aged five years or older prior to enrolling in the country’s basic education cycle. This created a non-trivial discontinuity in the propensity of kindergarten school attendance among different cohorts of children, which we exploited in this study. We find that children who were exposed to the policy were no more likely to be able to read, write and calculate by age 11–13 years when contrasted with comparable peers who were not compelled to attend kindergarten. However, those who were exposed to the policy were more likely to reach full functional literacy by early teen-age, which is likely due to dynamic complementarities in skills formation. While other children were able to eventually catch up with basic literacy skills in later childhood, children who attended kindergarten were more likely able to read and write before entering primary school, which likely allowed them to develop further skills later.

Despite their potential importance in the education production function, relatively little is known across contexts about the selection and training of school heads and supervisors in Africa. Based on available data and qualitative studies, most school heads and supervisors are selected from existing teaching ranks, receive little (if any) pre-service training, and are promoted based on factors other than their managerial ability.

Despite several education policies related to the Sustainable Development Goals, educational inequalities persist at the primary school level in Cameroon. However, little is known on students’ circumstances and efforts in an attempt to reduce these inequalities. The aim of this paper therefore is to analyse inequality of opportunity in Cameroon’s primary education sector. Using the 2014 and 2019 PASEC databases, we decompose students’ reading and mathematics test scores based on Shapley and non-parametric approaches to assess the role of household, school and environmental circumstances. Results show that inequality of opportunity contributes between 38.1 % and 46.3 % of total inequality for between 2014 and 2019 in test scores. Interestingly, school factors like school type, location, resources, and class size, have a bigger impact than students’ family background. Policies to improve school conditions should focus on rural and under-resourced areas in terms of educational materials, while improving school inspections and reducing class sizes may be more effective in reducing educational inequalities.

This paper concentrates on German school interventions with former right-wing extremists for preventive and educational purposes, in view of storytelling. The involvement of former extremists in schools is associated with well-intentioned aims and various assumptions about impacts and attributions. However, current research reveals that these projects feature more challenges than positive potentials. Thus, in this paper we take former right-wing extremists’ self-narratives during these school talk interventions as a starting point for an in-depth examination of potential risks and challenges. Considering the present state of the art, we attempt to provide preliminary answers to the questions of whom these projects target, why they are conducted, what are their contents, and how they transfer information. In sum, we are inclined to conclude that caution is advisable when contemplating such interventions for educational settings with young people.

This case study employs a Bourdieusian theoretical framework to analyze the relationship between an individual’s habitus and their perceptions about the value of education as described by students, teachers, and principals from two elite public high schools in Aydin, Turkey. The study argues that, as a part of school climate, the elite schools contribute to the reproduction of cultural capital that funds elite student habitus. Study results show that all the participants have positive perceptions about their schools, and all participants' habitus is supported by and reflective of the existing habitus of their school. This situation is sometimes a preference for elitism, but sometimes it is experienced as an obligation. The results confirm prior studies and related literature on the interrelationship between schooling, student habitus, and socio-economic reproduction.